Austerity is driving businessmen who “always turn left” when boarding a plane
to turn to easyJet instead.

Carolyn McCall, chief executive of the no frills carrier, has said that “cost conscious” business travellers have boosted passenger numbers by 1.6m year-on-year.The airline boss told the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) trade conference that business travellers have realised that the carrier is far cheaper and the “only thing they don’t get is a glass of red wine”.

As a result easyJet had had “resonance” with business travellers during the recession and once they had tried the airline “they never go back”. The airline’s “entire model is to be quick, efficient, reliable and punctual,” she said. “So business travellers like it.”

Ms McCall also said that the European Union can ‘be blamed for many things, especially red tape” but she said the European SIngle Sky deal had been “very important” to easyJet.

At the conference, the BCC’s director general John Longworth said trade and exports were “grossly underfunded” and called for the Government to offer more support.

“The whole of UK spending on trade support is just £317m of which export support receives around £236m,” he said. “The government spends 25 times as much of taxpayers’ money on overseas aid as it does on export support.”

Even so, a BCC survey showed that 69pc of exporters expect their turnover to improve this quarter, the highest level of confidence since 2007. Some 34pc said they expected to hire more staff over the next quarter. Nearly half the exporters asked - 46pc - said their sales increased in the third quarter of this year, compared to just 8pc who said that they decreased.

“Exporting businesses are doing all they can to drive growth and find new opportunities overseas, but the government can’t expect them to just get on with it without doing more to support them,” said Mr Longworth.

Also speaking at the conference, Chuka Umunna, the shadown Business Secretary, said: “The fact is this: if we fail at trade, we will fail our people.”